Problems of educational research in the Middle East

In spite of impressive expansion in the educational systems of the Arab Middle East countries, educational research in that region is yet to mature. A number of practical and theoretical problems responsible for the slow development of educational research are identified and discussed. Finally, the paper calls for ameliorative measures such as: the formation of voluntary groups of researchers and other educators; the establishment of a regional council for educational research with advisory, training and dissemination functions.     

新时期高校教育技术组织机构职能定位研究——兼论“教育信息化”与“教育技术”的融合

对教育信息化背景下的高校教育技术组织机构的职能定位问题进行研究,是当前高校教育信息技术工作的紧迫命题.通过问卷调查、网络检索、文献查阅及案例比对,对高校教育技术组织机构的本质属性、成立背景、现实环境三方面进行综合分析,得出教育信息化和教育技术走向融合是必然趋势,高校教育技术组织机构是教育信息化有效推进的基石和中坚力量;得出新时期高校教育技术组织机构的基本职能在于对高校教育信息化的有效推进和常规教育信息技术工作的持续开展;得出“建设、服务、管理、教学、科研五位一体,均衡发展”的“南通模式”对处于低迷徘徊阶段的高校教育技术组织机构建设具有一定的普适性和借鉴意义.     

教育心理学研究领域转化的轨迹、原因及启示

教育心理学研究领域经历了从只关注学到关注教与学的转化。其转化的原因有：心理学研究的推动、教育观念转变的影响、教育社会现象研究成果的丰富发展以及学科本身的内在规律性的揭示。这种转化告诉我们，加强教育心理学基本理论、研究方法、教与学的整合、教育心理学的实用化等方面的研究是必然趋势。     

课题研究促进教师专业成长探微

中小学教师开展的课题研究,其主要目的与作用不完全在于发展与丰富当今的教育理论,而是应该充分利用课题研究这个载体与平台,解决教育教学中的现实问题,改善教学行为,提高教学效率,并以此促进教师自身的专业成长。这个过程主要体现在问题意识的培养,思维方式的改变,读书学习的持续,研究能力的提升。     

时代挑战与教育科学的迫切任务

随着人的作用的增长和人力资本成为社会发展的主要资源,教育科学的重要性越发凸显,教育科学的研究领域进一步扩大;同时,教育科学面临空前的挑战和紧迫的任务,其中包括促进师范教育体系的完善、重视教育与文化的联系、开展多元文化教育及性教育。教育科学要在新形势下有所作为,就要转变教育科学研究机构及其人员的思维方式和工作方式,要与教育行政部门建立有效密切的联系,教育研究课题要反映教育现代化的趋势,引入竞争机制,建立科研成果推广机制,加强与师范大学的合作,创造性地运用国外经验。     

Revisiting educational equity and quality in China through Confucianism, policy, research, and practice

The promotion of educational equity and improvement of educational quality in China are contextualised in tenets of Confucianism and policy directives, inspiring educational research and practice. In this paper, we first explore the historical and cultural roots of educational equity and quality through Confucianism and elaborate on the current policy priority that aims to address educational equity and quality. We then present an overview of research on equity and quality in Chinese education. Informed by Confucianism, policy, and research, we pose a framework to structure our investigation and analysis of three illustrative examples, namely the Special Post Teacher Plan, amalgamation of rural schools, and schooling of floating children. Drawing insights from Confucianism, policy, research, and practice, we conclude that the promotion of educational equity through high quality provision of education for disadvantaged groups can help to narrow the gap in educational quality currently existing in China.     

The new federal definition of educational research: Implications for educators

Abstract

The new federal definition of scientifically based research may have significant implications for educators. This paper describes the new definition, the implementation of the definition, and summarizes the criticisms of this definition. The definition is situated within the context of the great divide that has historically separated educational researchers. Potential implications are discussed concerning stakeholder empowerment, scholarly and practitioner research, the preparation of educators, and university promotion and tenure. Finally, the political context of this definition is discussed in relation to the culture wars.     

Executive functions in learning processes: Do they benefit from physical activity?

As executive functions play an essential role in learning processes, approaches capable of enhancing executive functioning are of particular interest to educational psychology. Recently, the hypothesis has been advanced that executive functioning may benefit from changes in neurobiological processes induced by physical activity. The present research explored this hypothesis by systematically identifying and reviewing intervention studies targeting the relationship between physical activity and executive functions, distinguishing between different types of intervention and of executive function. The review found considerable evidence for beneficial effects of physical activity on executive functions, with performance benefitting more consistently in inhibition tasks than in dual task coordination, shifting tasks, or combined tasks. Possible physiological explanations are discussed. Open questions for application and future research concern the sustainability of effects, the design of physical activity interventions, and the role of individual differences. Possible interventions applicable to educational settings are discussed.     

Exploring the contribution of attribution retraining to student perceptions and the learning process

This paper looks at current research into how thinking influences learning. How people explain to themselves why they fail and succeed inevitably impacts on how well they learn new skills. Researchers have been developing attribution retraining programmes targeted at improving student academic achievement and learning experience through the promotion of positive thinking. These findings can often be found in scientific psychological journals far removed from the educational practitioners and learning environments they attempt to influence. This paper introduces the educational practitioner to the principles underlying attribution theory. The potential benefits of incorporating attribution retraining programmes into the school curriculum are then outlined and the future of this area for both researchers and educational psychologists alike is discussed.     

Prevention–Permission–Promotion: A Review of Approaches to Errors in Learning

Errors are often perceived as undesirable events to be avoided at all costs. However, a growing body of research suggests that making errors is, in fact, beneficial for learning. Building on human resource development literature, the present review proposes a 3P framework of approaches to errors during learning: prevention (avoiding or observing errors), permission (allowing errors), and promotion (inducing or guiding errors). This framework is applied to examine and integrate the empirical evidence on errors that have been commonly investigated in cognitive, educational, and applied psychology research. The psychological mechanisms of each error approach are discussed, and implications for education are considered. This review then concludes by highlighting the ways in which the various error approaches interact with learner characteristics and learning contexts, as well as discussing the role of feedback in error correction and proposing directions for future research toward understanding how errors can be optimized in learning.     

Significant signs: a case study of citation practices in educational research

Citations have a central role in the dynamic process of knowledge development and as measures of research performance – yet little is known about their role in educational research or the qualities they are assumed to measure. Based on a citation context analysis, this study shows how a paradigmatic reference within classroom research has been used in 90 articles in educational research journals. Four types of content and four citation functions were identified in the immediate context of the citation symbols. Surprisingly, no critical citations or discussions of the validity of the cited study were found. The results are discussed in relation to the conditions for communication within a field without disciplinary cohesion.     

The Attrition of Change: A Study of Change and Continuity

In this article models and theories on effective schooling are reviewed. Modelling is based on the various disciplinary oriented approaches to educational effectiveness. As such production functions, instructional effectiveness models and integrated, multi‐level educational effectiveness models are discussed. Various conceptual and formal representations of facilitation across levels are seen as the most interesting area for further model‐driven research. In the second part of the article four organization theories are discussed, all of which are seen as specific interpretations of the rationality paradigm: rational control theory and bureaucratic structuring; contingency theory; public choice theory; and retroactive planning. A fifth theoretical perspective, chaos theory, as applied to organizational functioning, looks more like a complete anti‐thesis of rationality, but can nevertheless be related to the emergence of ordered patterns and to organizational survival. Core mechanisms or theory‐embedded principles that follow from these theories are, respectively: proactive structuring; fit; market mechanisms; the cybernetic principle; and self‐organization. Further analysis of these principles leads to the conclusion that the cybernetic principle of evaluation feedback and reinforcement is the most interesting one, both from a theoretical and practice‐oriented perspective. Throughout the article hints and suggestions are provided for future, more theory and model‐driven educational effectiveness research.     

经合组织国家教育改革中的放权及其启示

20世纪80年代以来,经济合作与发展组织国家对公立学校进行重构与放权的尝试,主要包括:重新定位国家的角色,中央政府权力下放;扩大下级中层机构对学校管理和监督的权力;扩大学校的自主权;扩大社区与家长参与学校事务的权力几方面。改革之后,更多的权力从中央下放到地方和具体的学校,在管理自身事务以及提高教育质量方面,地方与学校发挥着更大的作用,承担着更多的责任。针对当前我国教育管理体制改革的情况,政府应该着重进行四个方面职能的定位:政策的制定应有利于支持权力的下放;关注加强学校能力的建设;严格的督导与评价;鼓励改革与更新。     

教育评价主题:促进人的发展

以促进人的发展为教育评价主题的确立,是由教育评价实践提出的要求,这一要求既符合时代发展的需要,又得到教育评价源点学科和教育评价学自身逻辑发展的支持。我们有理由认为:以促进人的发展为教育评价主题这一命题能够成立,且随着这一主题的真正确立将会对教育评价理论研究和实践改革产生根本性影响。     

培育学校特色与创建特色学校的若干思考

特色学校的独特载体是学校特色,特色学校的创建是一个自主发展过程,表现为“特色点——特色面——特色体”的培育过程、“特色理念——特色行动——特色成果”的运行进程、“合格——特色——优质”的发展历程。当前特色学校的创建还存在仓促创建、流于形式和盲目定位、自我陶醉两大问题。围绕改变学校同质化现状,提升学校核心竞争力的目标,培育学校特色和创建特色学校要注重各级教育部门在特色学校建设中的导向和推动作用、积极利用教育研究机构的智力支持和引领作用、充分发挥学校在创建过程中的核心主体作用。     

美国教育政策循证研究的理论与实践:对中国的启示

文章对2002-2017年间美国教育和政策研究领域中12种有代表性的学术期刊的研究论文类型和发表要求进行了可视化分析,基于美国教育政策领域中循证研究兴起的背景、证据类型和证据链检验标准,提出我国教育政策制定和研究过程中应重视循证研究理念,提高教育决策质量;加强教育政策智库建设,保证高质量的政策证据;政策类学术期刊重视循证研究,提升教育研究的科学性和权威性。     

谈教育生态学视角下的高职院校科研管理工作

当前高职教育已从外延扩张全面转入内涵质量提升阶段。在高职发展的新阶段,高职科研工作水平对提升教学质量、人才培养质量、服务地方的能力和水平关系日益密切,重要性也日益突出。其中科研管理工作开展的好坏将直接影响着高职院校科研水平的提高。目前高职院校科研管理工作由于受管理观念、管理体制等因素的影响仍然存在诸多问题,制约了高职院校教师科研水平的进一步提升。借鉴教育生态学的基本理论,从教育生态学的视角对高职院校科研管理系统中的相关因子进行分析,找出其中的相关性,以期对高职院校科研管理工作提供一种新的理解和思路。     

论科学教育研究与科学教育改革

科学教育学是国际上近半个世纪以来在历次科学教育改革中诞生与发展的、具有交叉性质的一门教育科学。科学教育改革与科学教育研究密不可分。科学教育改革需要科学教育研究的支撑;反过来,科学教育研究则需要科学教育改革的推动。我国当前和今后的科学教育改革亟须科学教育研究的学术支撑,尽快形成科学教育学的学科建制,把科学教育学增列为教育学的二级学科;在大学建立更多的科学教育研究中心;成立全国性的科学教育学会,创办科学教育研究期刊。     

Globalisation and educational research: Whose context counts?

This paper relates contemporary educational research to processes of globalisation. While the activity of educational research is essentially cultural, its production is also economic. As global research agenda emerge, the cultural contexts of those who generate funds and ideas for them are increasingly remote from those in a position to utilise research for the promotion of learning.This paper examines two bodies of research in international education located at very different points in the educational research hierarchy. The first, educational assessment, is extensive and accessible to a worldwide audience of researchers, policy-makers and practitioners in education. The second, multigrade teaching, is small, dispersed and accessible only to those who exercise a dogged persistence.The review of educational assessment underlines the need for a greater contextualisation of research and a greater sensitivity to the context of research by global policy-makers. It raises imperatives for the future conduct of research on educational assessment and international education more generally, and identifies areas for future research on the reciprocal effects of globalisation and educational assessment. The review of multigrade teaching describes briefly what multigrade teaching is, its extent, its relative neglect by researchers and policy-makers, and differences in the economic and educational contexts of the North and the South of the multigrade debate.     

A methodological review of statistical methods for handling multilevel non-nested longitudinal data in educational research

As applications of multilevel modelling in educational research increase, researchers realize that multilevel data collected in many educational settings are often not purely nested. The most common multilevel non-nested data structure is one that involves student mobility in longitudinal studies. This article provides a methodological review of three statistical methods for handling student mobility in longitudinal studies: a multilevel approach, a cross-classified approach, and a cross-classified multiple membership approach. The strengths and weaknesses of each approach and the essential differences between the three approaches are discussed. The Early Childhood Longitudinal Study Kindergarten Cohort data are analysed to demonstrate the differences in parameter estimates and statistical inference between the three approaches. Potential applications of the three approaches in educational research and beyond and directions for further methodological investigations are discussed.